Patriots Journal: Woodhead looks like he can play Sunday

FOXBORO — Despite a thumb injury, Danny Woodhead was on the sideline in the second half of the Patriots’ win over Houston on Sunday night and could have played if necessary, Patriots coach Bill Belichick...

FOXBORO — Despite a thumb injury, Danny Woodhead was on the sideline in the second half of the Patriots’ win over Houston on Sunday night and could have played if necessary, Patriots coach Bill Belichick said in a conference call Monday.

Woodhead injured his thumb on the Patriots’ first play from scrimmage and left the game immediately. The most explosive game in the career of Shane Vereen — 41 rushing yards, 83 receiving yards and three touchdowns — rendered a return by Woodhead unnecessary. Had Vereen been injured, Woodhead likely would have played.

“Had we needed to use him, he would have been available to go back in there,” Belichick said.

That bodes well for a return by Woodhead in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against Baltimore. Belichick wasn’t about to make any promises, however.

“Now that we’re into a new week, we’ll readdress the whole situation, try to get a good feel for what he would and wouldn’t be able to do and how functional he would be doing it,” Belichick said. “I would say that that’s something that we’ll have to look at during the week, assuming that the doctors clear him to play. That’s a medical decision. Then the next situation would be from a football decision, what can he do, how well can he do it, what is he and are we comfortable with him doing in this week’s game plan.”

Daboll returns

In comparable fashion to what Josh McDaniels did a season ago, former Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Brian Daboll will join the Patriots’ coaching staff in an unspecified role for the remainder of the postseason, Belichick said.

“As soon as we get that worked out, he’ll be part of our coaching staff going forward — similar to what Josh did last year but without any specific responsibility at this time,” Belichick said.

Daboll began his NFL coaching career with the Patriots as a defensive assistant in 2000, and he was promoted to wide receivers coach in 2002. He left New England to join Eric Mangini as the Jets’ quarterbacks coach in 2007 and as the Browns’ offensive coordinator in 2009. He also has served as offensive coordinator for the Dolphins and, most recently, for the Chiefs. He was not retained when the Chiefs hired Andy Reid as head coach 10 days ago.

McDaniels came to New England during the playoffs a year ago to work with the staff of then-coordinator Bill O’Brien, who had accepted a job as the head coach at Penn State. McDaniels then succeeded O’Brien as offensive coordinator.

“Last year when I came back, really anything they asked me to do, I was excited to do,” McDaniels said Monday. “Anything you can do to help at this time of year is useful — whether that’s drawing practice cards or sitting in a meeting and having a few ideas on a certain situation in the game plan or anything like that during the course of a week. Everything is so important. Every detail is very critical at this time of year. Having another football coach on your staff to help is nothing but helpful for us.”

But every time Johnson caught the ball, Talib was there to bring him down immediately. Whether it was a comeback route or a slant over the middle, Johnson rarely had more than a step on Talib — and Talib didn’t miss the chance to make a tackle once the ball arrived. Johnson catches resulted in six Houston first downs, but the only play that netted more than 16 yards was one of the few plays in which Talib didn’t line up across from Johnson.

On top of that, Talib made a terrific open-field tackle of Arian Foster on a fourth-and-1 run to come within an inch or two of turning the ball over on downs.

Nothing Talib did necessarily changed the course of the game, but his steadiness and consistency exemplified the way he’s changed the course of the season for the New England secondary.

“He’s done a real good job, really coming in and adapting to our system, learning the defense as we run it and the different coverages that we play,” defensive coordinator Matt Patricia said. “As a player, he’s got a real good skill set for the position outside. He’s got some speed ability. He’s long. He can be physical and tackle and do some of the things that we’re asking him to do, so it’s been a real good experience for us.”

Ayanbadejo took to Twitter as the Patriots were dismantling the Texans with their hurry-up offense. He repeatedly suggested that the offense was cheap and gimmicky, and also tweeted references to the Spygate scandal and past Patriots losses.

“New England does some suspect stuff on offense,” he tweeted during the first half. “Can’t really respect it. Comparable to a cheap shot b4 a fight.”

Later, there was this: “You know the same organization that did spygate and cut a guy the day b4 the Super Bowl.”

On Monday morning, he changed his tune.

“I made selfish comments on Twitter last night that reflected poorly upon myself, my teammates and the organization,” Ayanbadego wrote. “For that I apologize.”

Several Patriots were asked Monday about the comments. None took the bait.

“It is what it is,” Vereen said. “We’ll play on Sunday.”

“I think we’ve had a lot of people comment about our team and our players this year,” quarterback Tom Brady said Monday on WEEI’s Dennis and Callahan show. “I think the best thing that we do is we ignore the noise, we go out and we try to prepare. Nothing really that anybody says or does is going to affect what’s going to happen next Sunday. I think it’s best for us just to focus on what we can do, and that’s prepare and work and do what we’ve done all season. People want to say things or write things, they have the liberty to do that, but it doesn’t really have any bearing on what we do.”